LanOC Gaming News 11/2/2011

Shroud wrote: There are chests on the maps that contain mana. Charge and attack.. guessing you play a mage, which is the only class with a charged attack and a very weak one at game start. The reason the towers have pros and cons is because their are multiple classes all with different towers, the reason they are not infinitly buildable or upgradable is because that would negate from stratagy and the use of characters comabat skill. I've never played a "bad port" guess cause all the controls I need are their (and customizable) and I'm at least skilled enough to adapt quickly. I find it funny that you say elegance in referance to combat, and no not every class has counters. A squire can block, mages get long range and knock back, monks get melee and long range attacks, and hunters shoot from affar. And has for scaleing for difficulty... just turn the difficulty up.

It was not clear that mana is held in chests, and it really makes no sense if you think about it. I know that the classes don't have weapon variety, maybe they improve as you play more and more but I had no reason to put in a bunch of time as the game seemed like just spammy combat to me. And from what I saw, towers did NOT have pros and cons, they just got better. Sanctum is an example of a game with varied towers with pros/cons. And towers seemed infinitely buildable, or at least buildable enough to block routes and make traveling around the level be a pain for enemies and occasionally the player. It seemed like the strategy was to build towers to block in enemies on chokepoints and then spam attacks until they die.
Now, saying I'm not skilled enough just because the controls aren't perfect, that's honestly bullshit and below the belt. I didn't say anything about you. That's not cool. You've never wished for extra controls or freedom of movement in any game ever? Play Borderlands and tell me you honestly love navigating the menus with a mouse, staring at the tutorial you can't skip, and all those aspects of a game clearly designed for consoles.
Devil May Cry. THAT's elegance in combat; fluidity, depth, and freedom. The classes are clearly limited by the controls (aside from maybe the monk), and are just designed to be easy to hard instead of different styles and roles (see Borderlands, Diablo, etc.) And bumping up the difficulty is just scaling up the numbers, not making it more of a challenge. So they kill you and your towers easier and don't die as easily, spamming them and keeping out of range still wins. That's not more challenge.
You can defend your view on your game. But don't criticize my skill and ability as a gamer.

Leonresevil2 wrote: You have to have mana or whatever to build, and from what I played, you don't start with mana.
I feel it's a weak port due to controls designed/limited to a controller, limited construction system (can only build within 5 feet of your character), the tutorial is a flippin video, it's an Unreal engine game, and releasing DLC almost immediately after PC launch. Combat is composed of a weak attack and a chargeable strong attack. Now Magicka, I'm personally not a fan due to the constant DLC monetization, but THAT is a strong combat system.
I just think alternative Tower Defense games are the new hot thing besides MOBAs, and this one feels like a rush job. Sanctum has an elegance to the map design and construction limitations, pushing you to plan and defend. This game removes design rules, lets you place wherever, designs infinitely better towers with infinitely higher costs (instead of towers with advantages/disadvantages), and has you grind up more for better equipment and points while enemies scale to your stats.
It reminds me of Spiral Knights. Simple combat, but not much elegance in the depth of counters. It breaks down a lot to spamming. The game needs polishing for me to have reason to come back to it. Even then, I'm not sure.
I have nothing against fans of it. I wouldn't say I call everything a bad port; just there are a large number of them. I'd even call Borderlands a bad port, but it's not a bad game. It has enough depth and addictive gameplay to pull me back in now and then. But a bad port coupled with awkward gameplay and strange or missing mechanics sums up as a game I don't want to play.

There are chests on the maps that contain mana. Charge and attack.. guessing you play a mage, which is the only class with a charged attack and a very weak one at game start. The reason the towers have pros and cons is because their are multiple classes all with different towers, the reason they are not infinitly buildable or upgradable is because that would negate from stratagy and the use of characters comabat skill. I've never played a "bad port" guess cause all the controls I need are their (and customizable) and I'm at least skilled enough to adapt quickly. I find it funny that you say elegance in referance to combat, and no not every class has counters. A squire can block, mages get long range and knock back, monks get melee and long range attacks, and hunters shoot from affar. And has for scaleing for difficulty... just turn the difficulty up.

Lolwut. Anyone that doesn't enjoy subpar controls must just not be skilled? Joke post

Sorry it sounded like I was attacking you, I wasn't. Poor wording on my part, just meant that I can adapt to controls quickly where alot of people who complain about controls can't, wasn't making a statement about your skills. I wasn't argueing about the elegance, just find it funny when elegance is combined with fighting. And no Dreyvas I said nothing about enjoying subpar controls but a lot of people can't adapt to different controls and blame the controls instead of trying to adjust. Do I love menu's not made for pc's no, am I gonna complain abot having to click a few more times, nope. And thanks for the being a troll.

How is a game getting harder (be it more enemies, harder enemies, etc.) not more of a challenge? Higher difficulty in the game throws more enemies with higher hp and damage at you. And the towers DO have pros and cons. Also I'm wondering did you even bother opeing the chests? in most games chests= good.. unless it is a monster that is going to eat you. I guess in the end I don't find the controls awkward or burdensome and while not the most complex game ever made it is a blast to play with friends.

Some people can't adjust or refuse to adjust to different controls. just because controls are different or because someone doesn't like them doesn't make them sub-par. That's all I was saying, if a game truly has bad controls then the controls are bad nothing much to say there, except I've only run into a few of those. But I never said people who think controls are sub-par are unskilled just that a lot of unskilled people blame the controls when in fact they are easy to adjust to given the effort, or are customizable. That is what I was saying. Love the picture.

"I suck at some games, but it's usually not the games fault." is what I'm getting at.

Ok, so see Orcs Must Die as an example of what I wanted/expected. You can build where you look, not just 5 feet away when you lock yourself into position. You don't build towers that block paths and get attacked. You can actually take enemy aggro easily. You can fight quickly, easily, and get satisfying headshots and kill streaks. Your character looks and acts like a badass. There are areas for improvement (weapon upgrades, orc limb removal, multiplayer needed) but the higher level of polish is immediately evident. No silly item/level grinds, no lock-in controls, no slow animations. It's more player-dependent than Sanctum, which makes the lack of weapon improvements sad, but it still feels good and satisfying.

And can I get a 'hell yeah' to the idea of elegant combat in games? DMC, God of War, Bastion, something?